"Teaching tech in isolation never works. When a reluctant tech user learns how to do something with a project about which they're personally passionate, they're gonna be instantly engaged, work hard at it, and feel super exultant when it works!"

libraries are more important than ever to people who can't otherwise get connected: Nearly two-thirds provide the only free computer and Internet access in their communities, according to the American Library Association.

In the 25 years since the ALA adopted a policy urging full access for poor and homeless library patrons, few have taken this mission as far as Nashville's main downtown library, where Bailey arrives early each day, standing on an icy sidewalk in below-freezing temperatures with a half-dozen other people until the ornate bronze doors open.

Once inside, he goes directly to the third floor, where rows of computer terminals are quickly occupied by people carrying bags filled with their worldly possessions.

The library recently renovated this section with their homeless patrons in mind, ditching countless shelves of bound copies of "Popular Mechanics" and other periodicals that are now available electronically, and making way for 68 computers and more tables with ethernet connections and power outlets."

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"Librarians can't solve people's problems, but we can provide them the resources to solve their own problems," she said.

Jodie Bell of Taylor & Francis asks: how important is social media as a communication tool?

Research Information: February/March 2015

A social media white paper

Taylor & Francis sought to address some of these questions by conducting research into how the library community is currently using and applying social media. Libraries have been particularly prevalent in their uptake of social media, and use it as a key medium for engaging with their users. As such, it is an issue close to the heart of how libraries are evolving and Taylor & Francis wanted to help benchmark current use and provide best practice recommendations to help navigate what the future may bring.

The research conducted was on a global scale – more than 600 librarians worldwide contributed their thoughts, suggestions and experiences through focus groups, telephone interviews, an online survey and a Twitter party. All the research was then compiled into a white paper, which has now been published online and is available to download for free.

The white paper can be accessed online for free, along with accompanying top level data, infographic visualisations of key findings, video presentations and more. See http://bit.ly/socialmediatf for more details.

Kate Byrne: "The last two years have seen the program grow and develop far beyond anything we could have imagined so to celebrate the ILN’s second birthday we would like to share some of those incredible things with you:

Over the last 2 years we have held 4 rounds of the programThose 4 rounds have provided connections for over 1500 participants from 103 countries on 5 continents.Of those participants, over 80% plan to enrol for another round.Our web presence has grown dramatically since we launched this website and our Twitter account – we now have nearly 1400 Twitter followers and over 3300 Facebook likes.This website has received 125,000 hits including visits from all over the globe; every country except 11 of them.

It seems almost impossible to believe how quickly the time has flown by - but we realised that two years and three days ago we launched this website and the very first call for applications. The la...

Karen du Toit's insight:

Invaluable for international mentorship, international peer mentoring and international networking - for librarians and archivists!

IFLA is very happy to announce that all remaining past issues of the International Preservation News (IPN) have been digitised by the Preservation and Conservation Centre at the Library of Congress. IFLA would like to thank the Library of Congress for digitising these early editions of IPN and making them available to IFLA. The IPN archive of over 60 past issues is now complete and freely available online. We encourage everyone to re-discover these past issues of IPN, an important series that was published by IFLA for over 25 years with regular contributions from PAC Regional Centres. IPN ceased publication in December 2013. The IFLA Journal is picking up the mandate of IPN and will publish an issue dedicated to Cultural Heritage in its 3rd volume of 2015."

The AABC Archivist's Toolkit offers access to a wide range of on-line and published resources for archivists and archives workers at all levels. Special care is taken to provide resources for small and medium-sized archives. Intended for the British Columbia archives community, the AABC Archivist's Toolkit has evolved into much more. Archives-related sites across Canada and internationally link to this valuable site. Recommendations for additions, revisions and corrections are encouraged and should be directed to the Archives Association of British Columbia at info@aabc.ca. If you are looking for a copy of A Manual for Small Archives, originally published in 1988 and last revised in 1994, you can download a PDF (3.5 MB). Revision is ongoing. Submissions of additions, revisions and corrections are encouraged. Revision date: July 2012, BCANS

Libraries should be re-branded as vibrant community hubs offering free wifi, comfy sofas and coffee, according to government-commissioned report The recommendations are made in the Independent Library Report for England, commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport earlier this year.

Librarians have been acting in a limited way as publishers since well before the internet, but over the last 5 years or so, a revitalized librarian-publisher movement has emerged.

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the second edition of the Library Publishing Directory (2015), edited by Sarah Lippincott, tells a very different story. The directory is a non-exhaustive collection of 124 case studies of library publishing programs (111 based inside the US and Canada). According to Lippincott’s analysis, around 90% of library publishers work in collaboration with academic departments and faculty on campus, drawing on in-house expertise to form editorial and review boards. In return, the library supports research from their own institutions by providing an avenue for publication, particularly in niche research areas. While many library publishers (68%) also work with student journals such as university law reviews, the perception that library publishers ‘mostly publish student research’ isn’t backed up by the numbers."

Libraries are experimenting with some exciting ways to inspire and engage the community by creating meeting and maker spaces with old technology and new

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a report just released by the Aspen Institute Dialogue on Public Libraries asks us again to reconsider how the library can serve communities in the 21st century. “Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries” aims to “capture the momentum and excitement of the innovations taking place in public libraries across the country, and the impact these are having on communities,” said the group’s director, Amy Garmer. The report asks: With all the new technology and layered networks, what can be done beyond current advancements?

“We are a place for the curious, for creativity, a place for learning, a place to experiment. It’s always been the mission of the library. We’re just using different tools.”

The Dialogue on Public Libraries group is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Program and is made up of 34 library field leaders, business executives, government officials, education experts and community development visionaries. The group aims for more than just holding up great examples of libraries working well in the digital age.

“We want to provide a catalyst for new thinking about libraries as platforms for learning, creativity and innovation in their communities, and the creation of new networked forms of libraries,” Garmer said. If the report could spark engagement at the local, state and national levels to rethink how to use libraries and then constructively act on it, Garmer said, then the group’s goal will have been achieved."

By Peter C. Herman"For the past few years, both the California State University and the University of California libraries have been experimenting with packages that replace paper books with e-books. The advantages are obvious. With e-books, you no longer have to schlep to a library to take out a book. You just log on from whatever device connects you to the web, at whatever time and in whatever state of dress, and voila! the book appears on your screen.

But the real attraction is price. Library budgets, along with university budgets, have been slashed, and such companies as Pearson and Elsevier offer e-book packages that make it possible to gain access (I’ll explain the awkward syntax in a moment) to lots of books at what seems like a minimal cost. The savings are multiplied when the package serves the entire system. So instead of each campus buying a paper book, all 23 CSU’s, for instance, share a single e-book. That’s the theory, at least. The reality is very different."

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"Instead, a library pays to access a data file by one of two routes: “PDA,” or “Patron-Driven Acquisition,” in which a vendor makes available a variety of e-books, and a certain number of “uses” (the definition varies) triggers a purchase, or a subscription to an e-library that does not involve any mechanism for buying the e-book. Both avenues come loaded with all sorts of problems.

First, reading an e-book is a different, and lesser, experience that reading a paper book, just aswatching a movie at home differs from watching one in a theatre.

There’s a huge difference between casual and college reading, and recent studies prove beyond doubt that while e-books are perfectly fine for the latest John Grisham or Fifty Shades of Grey, they actively discourage intense reading and deep learning."

"WESTPORT, Conn.—They have blinking eyes and an unnerving way of looking quizzically in the direction of whoever is speaking. They walk, dance and can talk in 19 different languages. About the height of a toddler, they look like bigger, better-dressed cousins of Buzz Lightyear.

And soon, "Vincent" and "Nancy" will be buzzing around the Westport Library, where officials next week will announce the recent acquisition of the pair of humanoid "NAO Evolution" robots. Their primary purpose: to teach the kind of coding and computer-programming skills required to animate such machines.

While it isn't unusual for public libraries to offer instruction in programming or robotics, Westport is the first in the nation to do it with sophisticated humanoid bots made by the French robotics firm Aldebaran. In a brief demonstration last week, Alex Giannini, the library's digital-experience manager, had Vincent kicking a small soccer ball, doing tai chi and taking bows."

"Despite the vast and growing resources available online, much of the world's knowledge and history remains ephemeral and under threat of disappearance."

"Since 2004, the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme, supported by the Arcadia Fund, has funded nearly 246 projects in 78 countries to preserve and digitize archives at risk of extinction."

"...the British Library announced in a press release the release of From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. The publication, free to read online, chronicles 19 of the major preservation projects, including monastic manuscripts in Ethiopia, ecclesiastical archives on the history of slavery in Colombia and Brazil, and the sound archives of Radio Télévision Guinée and Iranian Golha radio."

It is exciting to feel energy build around a library and cultural arts center in downtown Columbus. The Columbus City Council has had their support galvanized by grant money coming

"So when you think of a library in 100, 300, or 500 years, imagine a beautiful building with spaces for discussion, contemplation and creation where wisdom can be shared. Imagine skilled librarians making sure that everyone has access to organized, meaningful resources that raise the level of public discussion above the din of the internet. Imagine all that topped off with a collection of the best hardbacks available."

Theme: Developing a stronger network for preservation and conservation in Africa to enable effective responses to natural disasters and man-made conflicts

We invite you to submit a proposal for the session of Preservation and Conservation Strategic Programme at the 81st IFLA General Conference and Assembly to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2015.

The theme of the session will look closely at the library networks within Africa, their response to natural disasters and man-made conflicts as well as the strength of the community.

The Preservation of Conservation Strategic Programme therefore encourages submissions around the topics of:

Responses of the (international, regional and national) library community to natural disasters in AfricaResponses of the (international, regional and national) library community to man-made conflicts in AfricaLessons learned from disaster responses (including challenges and successes)The importance of regional cooperation to effective disaster responseThe importance of adequate training for effective disaster response

Johnson County Public Library recently launched a new reference service. Johnson County Public Library recently launched a new reference service. Library patrons can talk with a reference librarian by live chat on the website or via text message and can ask about finding library materials, basic reference questions and using online resources like e-books and e-audiobooks. The chat service can be accessed by clicking the “Talk to a Librarian” button at the top of the website.